


Secrets and Obfuscations

by akire_yta



Series: the drawer sessions [9]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: F/M, professor john and spy penny!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 16:38:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12685926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: 5 times penny and john slept together (because reasons. see also, shenanigans)  [professor john and penny the spy verse]





	Secrets and Obfuscations

1) John hadn’t been lying when he said he made too much pasta.  Then again, John didn’t seem to lie at all.

It was refreshingly different from her usual day to day.

“You said lots of pasta.  You didn’t add that it was smothered in a truly delicious cream sauce,” Penny told him as she carried her own plate to be dumped in the sink in top of his to soak.

“A man has to have some secrets.  Adds to my allure.”   The way the bridge of his nose wrinkled slightly when he was being cute was just downright  _adorable_.

She’d read his file; a cursory glance before she’d met him at the factory facility that first time, with more care afterwards.  She knew that his life had been workworkwork right up until the point he had snapped and landed himself in this apartment close to campus.  Penny admired his commitment to the change.

She also knew that, up until a year ago, John and  _fun_ weren’t close friends. They were barely even acquainted.  Watching him be teasingly playful now made her smile.

“Pen?” he asked, and she realized she’d gotten lost in the moment.

That seemed to happen a lot around John.  “Just calculating exactly what it adds to your allure,” she teased back, rallying strongly.

John just lightly flicked her with his tea towel.  The silence that settled between them was peaceful and easy as they cleared the rest of the dishes, tidied up the kitchen.

Penny knew she shouldn’t be here; she should make her excuses and leave.

But her belly was full, and she suspected that John’s couch was as delightfully comfortable as it looked.  So she didn’t offer much resistance when he patted the cushion beside her.  “What are you in the mood for?” he asked, waggling the controller for his impressively sleek entertainment centre.

“Cook’s choice,” she said with a wave of her hand, feeling heavy and languid.  The screen lit up, but Penny was only aware of the way John slumped back so as to be angled into her.

She didn’t remember sliding, was only vaguely aware her cheek had landed on his shoulder.

The next thing she knew, it was morning, and there was a warm, fuzzy blanket draped over her, and the sound of John humming slightly in the kitchen as he fixed breakfast.

Penny sighed and let her eyes drift closed again. 

She hadn’t slept so well in years.

 * * * 

2)  It had all gone wrong.

The hum of the engines was a steady lullaby, a constant reminder that they were getting further away from that place.

Next to her, John shifted uncomfortably on the hard jump seat of the cargo plane – these things were designed for boxes, not people, and the best passengers could do was wedge themselves in a corner and hold on.  But he didn’t wake; she could see the smudge of a bruise, high on his cheekbone as he turned his face in against Penny’s shoulder.

Beyond John was the bulkhead.  Beyond Penny were one or two members of the extraction team and beyond them, the dark shapes of the body bags.

A few inches to the left, and John would have been in one of them.

He shouldn’t even have been there - it was meant to be safe, a sanctuary for data analysts. Penny was one of only three field operatives there, the rest of their forces miles away, closer to the front.

John had only come grudgingly, and then only because Penny had said  _please_.  But the codes were beating everyone else; John dreamed in numbers, and Penny knew he could solve it.  And if he could solve it, she could use it to save lives.

The body bags at the back of the plane were testament to how wrong she was.

“Hey.”  John’s voice is rough with sleep and smoke.  But his hand was steady and strong as it groped for hers.  “You okay?”

“Promise me,” and she pretended not to hear the waver in her own voice.  “Never come out into the field again.”

John’s snort is half sarcastic, half-sincere.  “Even if you say please?”  His eyelashes were fluttering, sleep already clawing him back down.

“Please don’t,” she whispered.

John’s eyes opened slowly, languid shadows in the low lights.  “You saved my life, Pen,” he whispered in her ear.  “I think the tradition allows you to call in one promise in return.”

“Promise me you’ll be safe at home.”

John nodded.  She wondered how awake he was as he brushed his chin across her shoulder, his lips grazing the thick, rough folds of her rarely used tactical harness.  “As long as you come home with me, Miss Penelope,” he almost drawled, echoes of Kansas in his vowels.

She watched him doze, her fingers twined with his.  “Creighton-Ward.”

“Hmm?”  His head lolled with the motion of the plane.  “What?”

“Who,” she corrected gently. “Me.  Penelope Creighton-Ward.”

John lifted their twined hands and pressed her gloved knuckles to his lips.  “Pleasure to meet you, Miss Creighton-Ward.”

Despite the chill of the hold, Penny finally felt a burst of warmth.  “Sleep, you idiot.  We’ll be home soon.”

He didn’t argue, didn’t resist.  His head grew heavy on her shoulder.

She didn’t let go of his hand.

 * * * 

3) “Secret code?” John asked with more than a passing interest as he set a fresh cup of tea at her side.

Penny sighed and slumped back against him.  His fingers were on her shoulders, gently massaging.  “I wish apartment listing came with an indication of whether or not the other tenants were likely to be a red flag during a security clearance.”  She sighed at John’s noise of inquiry. “My landlord has made it clear that my coming and going all hours is against some unwritten clause of my lease.” She frowned.  “Maybe I should just buy and be done with it.”

John’s fingers worked a particularly stubborn knot.  “You rent?”

Penny shrugged, unsure how to explain that, until now, she’d barely spent six months in a city before she’d gotten bored enough to want to move on.  “Seemed appropriate for a footloose and fancy-free young lady of the world.”

John’s fingers slowed.  “Well,” he said slowly, unsure but edging forward anyway. “We know I can and have passed a security check.  And I too keep odd hours.”  He took a deep breath.  “And I have a spare bedroom, if you…”

Penny twisted in her seat.  “John Glenn Tracy, are you asking me to move in?”

John’s long finger unfurled to point at the table.  “That’s your mug, not mine.  Same for that vase, and I have never bought flowers in my life.  Your coat is hung up in the hall, and that’s your tablet on the counter.  Pen, you’re half moved in already.”  He shrugged, blushing slightly.  “I was thinking of getting a dog, but you’re already house-trained….”

He yelped as Penny lunged, laughing as he led her on a merry chase across the kitchen and over the sofa.  He made it to his bedroom, but before he could slam the door, Penny tackled him onto the bed.

It was luxuriously soft, and Penny ceased her attack to sprawl appreciatively.  “Oh, maybe I’ll just move into this room, your bed is so much nicer than mine.”

John rolled on his side to look at her.  Penny exhaled slowly as she realized what she’d said.  But before she could recant, stuff the words back down her throat, John’s fingers were on her wrist.  “I usually sleep on the left.  You?”

She felt an unaccustomed blush spread across her cheeks.  “Right.”

John was blushing too, not quite meeting her eye.  “Well, then if you want that side, I’m not using it.”

She rolled over into him until they were nose to nose.  This energy between them had been simmering for months, but the moment his fingers had touched her wrist, she’d felt something start to boil.

But she needed to be sure.  The file had been clear, and she knew her people were thorough.  John had never, ever, dated.  He’d even gone to his high school prom stag.

“John?” she whispered.

He finally looked up, a tiny gasp of air as he leaned in to close the final inch and kissed her.

Her eyes fluttered closed of their own accord.  John’s kiss was raw and unpolished but full of so much promise that it made her toes curl.  She chased after him slightly when he finally pulled back.  “Ask me again,” she whispered, breathless.

“Move in with me, Penny.  Stay.  Please.”

She kissed him again, the early burst of passion leveling out into something far more warm and full of promise as they slowly twined together, just kissing.  Finally, they settled, just holding each other, nose to nose and forehead to forehead, their breath mingling on every matched inhale and exhale.

They drifted off as the sunlight tracked across the room and faded into evening, napping together until her phone rang and dragged her back to reality.

 * * * 

4)  “Freshmen are the  _worst_ ,” John tried to say through his stuffed nose.

Penny patted his head and hid her smile as John grumpily rearranged his blankets higher.  He’d made it as far as the couch before his flushed cheeks and swaying gave way to him all but collapsing onto the couch in a fit of coughing.

Penny was freshly back from places she couldn’t talk about, her tan and a bruise high on her thigh the only mementos she’d brought home.

(The  _other_ memento was currently considering his bad life choices in a very dark, very cold, very black cell. But he was other people’s problems now, and she had two glorious weeks of downtime ahead of her.)

John was already halfway through the only box of tissues in the place, his nose glowing red above the edge of the covers.  “Are you mocking me?” he slurred suspiciously.

“Always, darling,” she told him.  Even under covers, she spotted his little smile, the one he still wore every time she called him  _darling_.

The moment was broken by another coughing fit.  “Happy moving in with me week, have a sick person,” he groaned.

She patted his cheek and went to check on the soup.  By the time she came back with a tray, John had made it to sitting, several of her cushions shoved under his back.  He leaned back as she perched down on the arm next to him.  “I’m infectious, I’ll get you sick.”

She shrugged and kissed his cheek anyway.  This  _thing_  between them was still ill-defined and unsure, but the entire time she was away, she had been looking forward to coming  _home_.  “I’ve no plans to go anywhere.  Now, are you going to drink your soup or do I have to fly the aeroplane into the hangar.”

His baleful look had her laughing so hard she slopped a splash over her fingers.  Licking them clean as he sipped and then drank the mug of soup she’d made him, she waited until he was done and the cup safely back on the tray before she wriggled down next to him on top of the covers.  “So, by my count, my turn to pick the movie.”

His breathing was harsh, but he freed an arm to wrap around her waist, anchoring her to him as she picked something off his Netflix queue and set it to play.  “Is this good?” she asked, not caring about the answer.

“Shh,” he mumbled.  “Watching movie.  Actively being killed by my sinuses.  No talking.”

Giggling, she let the sound of his laboured breath calm her.  Slowly, she drifted off to sleep.

 * * *

5)  John was blushing, and not the good kind.  Penny was having a hard time wrapping her head around it.  “Seriously, never?”

John shrugged, struggling to look her in the eye.  In anyone else, she’d find that suspicious, but she knew John better.  “I don’t lie to you.”  It was a promise she knew he’d always keep.  Lie for her, lie because of her, but never to her.  “But you’re…”

“Me,” he finished flatly. There was a distasteful moue to his lip that she didn’t like. “I believe that is 99% of the issue here.”  

Penny felt her expression change as disbelief swept through her.  “Darling, and I say this as someone who is paid to lure rich, powerful, quite often stunningly handsome men to their doom. You,” and she leaned in and down to fully capture his gaze.  “Are hot like burning.”

John’s eyeroll told her everything she needed to know.

She squared her shoulders.  “Right,” she said briskly. “First things first.  Do you want to have sexy funtimes with me, right here, right now?”

That, at least, startled a laugh out of him.  “Oh gee,” he teased back.  “Penelope Creighton-Ward, professional doom lurer and certified gorgeous human being is in my bed, in silk lingerie, being a dork.  Let me think about this…”

She slapped him with a pillow as he laughed, but his humour faded as fast as it had arrived.  “Yes, Penny.  I have never ever wanted sex before, but right now, it’s all I can think about.”  He blushed, a better colour this time, and continued quietly.  “I’ve kind of…all this week…longer, even….maybe been having these…thoughts?”  He took a deep breath as she nodded encouragingly.  “About what it would be like to push you up against the wall, or pull you down onto me when I’m sitting on my chair.  How your legs might wrap around me.”  Despite his hesitancy, it was a pretty word picture he was painting.

John was kneeling, up by the pillows, and both his words and the tent in his boxers were pretty clear invitations she intended to accept.

Arching her back slightly, she dropped forward onto all fours and all but slinked across the small space between them.  Pushing her breasts forward, she settled her hands around his neck.

All her lingerie was chosen for its effect, but this was set she’d selected especially, just for John.  She’d played a hunch, and by the way his eyes had darkened hungrily as she’d all but rubbed her cleavage in his face told her she’d scored.

She settled her knees on either side of his thighs, took her time getting comfortable.  “Like this, maybe?” she asked, playing the innocent to his unfeigned novicity.

His hands had settled on her waist, his thumb playing with the liquid texture of the silk slip.  “Yeah,” he breathed. 

She peppered kisses up his cheek, reveling in the slightest scrape of his barely-there stubble.  “Let’s play a game,” she whispered in his ear.  “I’ll do all the heavy lifting this time, and all you need to do is say yes or no and enjoy, okay?”  She punctuated her offer with a quick nip and suck of his earlobe.

“Yes,” he managed, breathy and shaky.

She started easy, just settling in his lap and kissing him, working her way south until his yeses were less shaky but just as breathy.

By the time she had him sprawled on his back, her lingerie scattered around the bed, he was glowing and breathing hard.  As she steadied herself on the headboard, he stopped her.  “Let me..I just need to see you.”

It was her turn to feel like someone had punched the air out of her lungs.  “I’m right here, darling,” she murmured, smiling, eyes drifting closed as he reached up to gently tuck a loose lock of her hair behind her ear.  “Ready for me?”

His hand drifted down her neck, cupping her jaw.  “You ready for me?” he managed to quip.

She’d had his erection in hand not minutes before.  He didn’t seem to realize it was a fair question.  Her mouth was almost watering at the thought of how good it was going to feel, how full and deep.  “Darling, I really, really,  _really_ need to fuck you now.”

He was laughing as she guided him in and slowly worked her way down. By the time she felt the edge of his hips pressing into the crease of her thighs, his laugh had turned into a moan that echoed her own.

He was a fast learner–a transferable genius that she suspected might be the end of her as he rolled her over and found the perfect angle for the rapid staccato of his hips.

Then his questing fingers found her clitoris and it was all over bar the unfaked screaming.

After, fresh from a shared shower, their skin soft and warm, he curled up and tugged her into the curve of his body.  “How does it feel to no longer be the blushing virgin?”

She felt him twitch and laughed, unable to help herself.

“Terror,” he grumbled fondly, nipping along her pulse point.

Penny yawned, feeling that delightful ache, the warmth of his naked body all down her back, the steady in-out of his breathing.  “Hey, you fucked me, you have to keep me.”

His voice was already halfway asleep. “I think we can sort something out.”

Wrapping her hand around his, she let his breathing lull her to sleep.


End file.
